Some days are just lucky. When you stumble upon a musician you’ve never heard of before, for example, who is six albums deep and you’re in awe of nearly every song you hear. Laura Stevenson has a voice like a more mature Juliana Hatfield, and shares her penchant for rockers as well as hushed contemplative songs. She masters the quiet to loud dynamic, and her latest self-titled album is perfect in its balance. She has as some of her fans, the up and coming Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers, and she’s on some tour dates with the former. It looks like many other people are going to be discovering Laura soon as well.
The album starts out with “State,” one of the hardest rocking songs in her discography, and one that deals with the feeling of rage, as she’s never experienced it before. Apparently, this album revolves around a tragedy with a friend, where she had to “help someone that I love very much who was going through something absolutely unthinkable.” At the heart of the album is a woman who observes everything around her and inside herself, with a painful sensitivity. “For a minute, I watch the scenery unfold / I think of you / For a minute, I watch the clock and when it stops / I think of you.”
On that song, titled “Don’t Think About Me,” she pleads with someone she knows to let her attend to their needs and not the other way around. The album, an album of attending, comes at as interesting time, as Laura was pregnant with her first child through the recording. The wonderfully colorful album art is actually a rendering of her, probably in her living room, with her baby in her lap. The baby becomes a metaphor for caring for her friend, caring for others, which is the centerpiece of the album. As a self-titled album, both the sound and the content take on a magnified meaning: THIS is who Laura Stevenson is.
Dealing with bad news on a beautiful day, like on “Sky Blue, Bad News,” contemplating jumping out of a moving car to save someone, on “Moving Cars,” contemplating keeping her loved ones safe from harm, on “Continental Divide.” I believe these songs were written before she became pregnant, but they are all songs that are maternal in their feel. She’s looking to tour, baby in tow, and she shared on a podcast I heard the heroics she seen of other mother performers who have done it. In the midst of a pandemic, it will be quite a feat.
This album is, in fact, a perfect pandemic record. The rage we feel at losing loved ones, the questioning of how brave we can be, the panic, the peace. I’m glad to have discovered an artist who is so mature in their writing, musically and lyrically, with such an extensive catalog of material. It’s no wonder some of the up and coming song writers are looking to bolster her career. It’s a hard road for an indie songwriter to get known, but slowly but surely, an artist like Laura Stevenson finds her people. In this, her self-titled album, she presents as someone you can trust. To come through in a time of great need, without arrogance or self-importance, but sensitivity and love.
Prism Reviews 